Tennis Stats for The Big Four

As I predicted in my last post it would be a Murray and Djokovic Final in Australia, also citing Murray's triumph over Federer in the semi (wish I had've put my money where my blog is). There is no doubt in the tennis world that Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray have played the best tennis in the past 6 months. Many predicted after Murray's breakthrough victory at Flushing Meadows that this was the dawn of tennis' new big rivalry. Rafa and Roger have served up the greatest rivalry in tennis history that spans back to 2004. Having played 8 Grand Slam finals (Rafa leads 6-2) and winning 28 titles between them, makes it the greatest. The question is can Rafa or Federer make it to any more finals? The chances of them both making a final against each other seems even less likely. That's mainly due to the rise of Novak, and more recently Andy. Could the greatest tennis rivalry ever be handing a baton to another of the greatest rivalries? The fact that this top four has...

As we enter the first slam of 2013, let's have a look at a very e xciting year ahead for the Big Four... o r will it be the B ig Three? Novak Djokovic Novak enters the 2013 Australian Open as World Number 1 and favourite to retain his title . He is going for his 4th win in Melbourne and his 6th Slam in total (same number of slam wins as Becker and Edberg). Having attended Novak's last big final at the ATP World Tour finals in London, he finished the 2012 season in style. His biggest strength now is belief and confidence to turn situations in his favour. Against Federer and Murray in that tournament Novak showed great guile, both in terms of play and psychology to get the edge in these victories. For that reason I see Novak dominating 2013, potentially getting the 'Grand Slam'. A ustralian Open Pre dictions 1st Round v. Paul-Henri Mathieu :   Head to Head : First meeting   Prediction: This will be a straight sets victory for Novak . The last time Novak lo...

As we enter today's final of the US Open, Novak Djokovic goes in as slight favourite. Djokovic is the defending Champion and leads the Head to Head with Murray 8-6. Interestingly, they have only met twice in the Slams and that was at the 2011 Australian Open final, and again this year in Melbourne at the Semi Final stage. In that 2011 final Djokovic stormed to a 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 victory and Murray never really got into the match. Djokovic did go on to dominate 2011 with some of the most amazing tennis we have seen. This year's semi final at Australia was a much tighter affair finishing 6-3, 3-6, 6-7(4), 6-1, 7-5. This was an epic match and Murray showed he was able to match the Serb for the vast majority of the 4 hours 50 minutes battle.  If we look at the stats below, it would suggest Djokovic is also showing to be in slightly better shape than Murray. When compared side by side in 2012 Slam averages, Djokovic edges Murray in pretty much all of the key categories. ...

Andy Murray's destruction of Roger Federer at Centre Court yesterday was evidence of his potential to win big. This was something that Federer is not used to experiencing, this was a super performance by Murray. Maybe he can move on to top the Big Four, and maybe even do it by the end of 2012. Murray played yesterday with pure focus and looked very composed for the full match. This was his first ever victory over Federer in a best of 5 sets, only giving away a measly 7 games to games greatest ever player. The Wimbledon final was hyped so much that there was huge pressure on the Scot's shoulders. In that final Federer produced some genius shots at key moments to win out in the end. However, what Murray showed yesterday is that when relaxed he can hit those big winners at the key points too. These are the big points that separate the Grand Slam winners. Djokovic in the past 12 months has produced so many of those, the best being the forehand at last year's US Open when ...

The stats would tell us that Nadal has been getting closer in the last three Grand Slam finals against Djokovic. These are the 2011 finals at Wimbledon and the US Open, and the 2012 Australian Open final. Below are the stats showing how the matches are longer and Nadal is winning a bigger % of the points. With today's Roland Garros final on Clay, I have a feeling this one will go to Nadal. The question is if it does, how will Djokovic respond? Let's enjoy today's match between two of the games greatest, and good luck to both guys. Click on the image to enlarge:

With the Australian Open being the only completed Grand Slam so far in 2012, this comparison will be more complete when Roland Garros finishes on Sunday. So the stats below only show the Australian Open matches. I have taken the Big Four and compared their averages for 2011 to their performance at Australia in 2012.  First, lets look at the World Number 1, Djokovic. It is interesting how his match time increased significantly. He had those two epic five set matches in the semi and also in the final.  It also shows that he wasn't as strong on winning points on his serve, but made up for that when returning. His first serve percentage dropped significantly at Australia, which may have attributed to his longer matches. On overall points won his percentage increased, so it showed he was still in top form with the stats proving again why he is ranked number 1.

I have compiled averages from all matches played at the slams in 2011.  It is interesting how the points won averages (%) are in order of how the rankings finished for the year. When you look at Djokovic you can see he has the best averages overall, as his three victories would have suggested. Djokovic and Federer are the guys that impress the most when it comes to percentage of service points won, with Federer having a slight edge. In terms of percentage of return points won it is Nadal who is the strongest with Djokovic a close second. They both win more than 60% of points on their opponents second serve, which is very impressive. These numbers express what we already know in terms of both players ability to outrally their opponents from the baseline. It also means for Murray or Federer to get victories, a high first serve percentage is vital. The big question is can Djokovic keep this level going in 2012. His averages when winning this years Australian Op...